They threw this cargo of tea, worth about
18,000 pounds, overboard. This Boston Tea Party was a direct
challenge to British authority. In response, Parliament closed the
port of Boston until compensation was made to the East India
Company. By statute of 1774, no one may enter or exit the port of
Boston or forfeit goods, arms, stores, and boats carrying goods to
ships. Every involved wharf keeper shall forfeit treble the value
of the goods and any boats, horses, cattle, or carriages used.
Ships hovering nearby must depart within six hours of an order by
a navy ship or customs officer or be forfeited with all goods
aboard, except for ships carrying fuel or victuals brought
coastwise for necessary use and sustenance of inhabitants after
search by customs officers, and with a customs official and armed
men for his defense on board. This statute is passed because of
dangerous commotions and insurrections in Boston to the subversion
of the king's government and destruction of the public peace in
which valuable cargoes of tea were destroyed. Later, the Governor
was given the right to send colonists or magistrates charged with
murder or other capital offenses, such as might be alleged to
occur in the suppression of riots or enforcement of the revenue
laws, to England or another colony for trial when he opined that
an indifferent trial could not be had in Massachusetts Bay. A
later statute that year altered the charter of Massachusetts Bay
province so that the choice of its council was transferred from
the people to the Crown to serve at his pleasure, and the
appointment and removal of judges and appointment of sheriffs was
transferred to the Governor to be made without the consent of the
council.
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